Tajik wife of IS militant stranded in Syria begs mother to rescue her

Caravanserai

DUSHANBE -- The Tajik widow of a militant, stranded in a Syrian camp with her six children, is begging her mother to send money and to extract them from their misery, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)'s Tajik service reported May 25, quoting the mother.

Davlatbi Odinayeva of Kulyab May 19 conversed by phone with her daughter, Sarvinozi Abdukhalil. RFE/RL obtained the recording.

Abdukhalil's husband was killed four months ago, leaving her and their six children stranded in a Kurdish-run camp in Syria for militants' families, according to Abdukhalil.

"She said, Mom, I know you have no money, but I really want you to send me money and to ransom my life," Odinayeva told RFE/RL. "The next day [May 20] I called that number, but nobody answered ... I hope nothing happened to her."

In 2015, Abdukhalil's husband, Armirjon Abdurakhmonov, spirited his family from Russia -- where he was working -- to Syria, said Odinayeva.

Tajik Ambassador to Kuwait Zubaidullo Zubaidzoda was in the Syrian capital of Damascus May 21-23 to discuss "the question of establishing the identities and number of Tajik citizens in that country and their return to their homeland", the Tajik Foreign Ministry said in a May 24 statement.

Dozens of Tajik "Islamic State" (IS) members are in prisons in Syrian areas under Kurdish control, according to RFE/RL.